Draft anti-terror law lapses in 2000

The new anti-terrorist legislation to be rushed through the Dail next week will lapse at the end of 2000 unless renewed, the Government has confirmed.

Draft copies of the Offences Against the State (Amendment) Bill, which runs to 19 sections, were circulated to Opposition politicians last night, and senior Department of Justice officials were standing by to brief them.

The Bill will be published on Monday, in advance of Wednesday's emergency Dail debate. But the inclusion of an expiry date has effectively pre-empted Opposition suggestions that the measures be subject to review. A Government spokesman said the deadline had been set in the context of expected progress on the Belfast Agreement.

Welcoming the draft legislation last night, Mr John Bruton, the Fine Gael leader, said a question remained as to why at least some of its provisions had not been introduced earlier to counter the known threat of the `Real IRA'.

"A serious lapse in national security occurred when a car was stolen in Carrickmacross by a subversive organisation and used to commit the biggest mass murder in modern Irish history at Omagh. This was the 16th in a series of known actions by this organisation, whose existence had been widely advertised," he said.

But Mr Bruton indicated that the new law should not be confined to the fringe republican groups.

"The powers in this legislation must be used to eliminate all punishment beatings, punishment shootings, racketeering, targeting and stock-piling of weaponry by all subversive organisations, whether on ceasefire or not. There is place for only one legal authority in this State: no private armies should exist, whether in ceasefire or not," he said.

Mr Pat Upton, Labour's spokesman on justice, also welcomed the draft legislation. After a briefing by officials last night, he said he was satisfied the law struck a proper balance between countering the paramilitaries and upholding civil rights.